The Fallen Guardian
by thederpaderp
Summary: It is said that years ago, a Hunter betrayed his fellow guardians and was sentenced to death. The Hunter escaped and plotted his revenge on those responsible for his sentence. While many believe the stories and tales, there are some who say they know the truth of who the Fallen Guardian actually is. Are the stories true, or is there more behind what happened so many years ago?
1. Chapter 1: First Contact

This is my first attempt at making a fanfic, so tell me what you guys think and what I could fix. I actually started this on but it didn't get much attention, so I decided to put it here. I'll throw in the other couple chapters I have once I get some feedback so that I can make any necessary fixes. Enjoy!

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"Years ago, there was a very dangerous guardian. He was a hunter that wore a cloak made up of cloth from defeated fallen enemies and fellow guardians alike. He wielded the hand cannon that was used to kill him once, but defended him against death for years to come. His weapon didn't defend him against everything, of course; he lost an arm to an old fallen rival which he defeated soon after, but the arm was irreplaceable. He had many nicknames throughout the years: The One-Armed Guardian, The Hand Cannon Avenger, The Cloaked Betrayer. Those were little known names, for he was mainly referred to by one name: The Fallen Guardian."

I continued to tell the story of how he betrayed his fellow guardians and all the bad deeds he performed. I looked around at the small collection of children surrounding me while I told this mesmerizing tale. I saw many different faces of amazement, boredom, even fear; but one face stood out among all of them, and that was the face of anger. I've told this story many times to many different groups of children in different places in the City, but I've never seen any angry ones.

I shook it off and told the children I had to go, that guardians are very busy these days. The children, all very upset by the news, said their goodbyes and the group slowly broke apart, with some children going to play soccer and others going into their homes.

As I was about to leave, I saw the angry child had stayed behind, looking at me. I knelt down as he approached me and spoke, "You're wrong about him, y'know. He was a good man, a kind man, but everyone made him seem bad. You don't know what you're talking about and I think you should stop telling that story."

Before I could say anything, the child ran off; perhaps to hide away or play with his friends. I stood up and stared at nothing, dumbfounded. I thought to myself that the child may have been thinking of a different guardian, for The Fallen Guardian knew no kindness.

Once I broke free of my trance, I began to walk toward my ship that I had parked in an open area. I walked through alleys and less populated areas when a guardian I didn't know called out to me from a side alley, "Hunter, come over here."

I looked over to see another hunter with a large cloak hanging over one arm. "Who are you? What do you want? I have places to be," I replied, slightly annoyed.

"Just come over here, I need your help with something."

Maybe I'm too kind of a soul, maybe I'm curious, maybe I'm an idiot, but I followed this hunter into the alleyway. I began to ask who he was, and as I followed him around a corner, I was suddenly grabbed by the throat and slammed against the wall.

"Who are you? Who do you work for?" The unknown hunter asked me through what sounded like clenched teeth.

His grip was tight and I tried desperately to claw at his hands to loosen his grip, to no avail. His grip tightened as I desperately tried to claw and gasp for air. My vision slowly began to fade until I suddenly fell to the ground, air returning to my lungs and my vision returning. After about a minute or two, I am mostly recovered, so I look up to see this hunter leaning against the wall opposite of me in the narrow alleyway.

"What is wrong with-… Who are you?" I yell, still recovering.

"Shut up, I didn't plan on killing you," the hunter says in an annoyed tone.

The hunter then reaches to the side of his body that is covered by the cloak and moves the cloak. Under the cloak was… Nothing, there was no arm there.

As I try to figure out why this would answer my question; he speaks up, still annoyed, "I'm the… the Fallen Guardian," he says with air quotes, "the one from your stupid children's tale."

I quickly stand up and reach for my knife, but it isn't there. As I look back towards him, I see that he has my knife and is closely inspecting it.

"This is a pretty nice knife if you want to spread butter," he hands it back to me, "you obviously haven't been in the field in a while, you should consider replacing that."

I grab my knife and poke the tip of it in shame, realizing the accuracy of his statement. I put my knife away and look back to him. "What the hell do you want? Why are you here, you traitor."

He puts his hand in front of himself defensively, "Woah woah, slow down there. Why don't you learn something before you go spreading lies?"

He lowers his hand and points at me, "I've been looking for you for a while now, spreading these rumors about me being a horrible traitor that kills his fellow guardians and wears their clothes."

"But you did kill your fellow guardians. You murdered them in cold blood bec-,"

"Stop, STOP!" He yells, "You don't know what I've been through, you don't know what happened," He hesitates for a moment and lowers his voice, "You don't know what happened... So you're going to come with me, and I'm going to tell you a very, very long story."

I fold my arms over my chest, "What if I don't want to come with you?"

The hunter sighs and looks toward the sky, "I didn't want to do this, but I'm gonna have to do this."

Before I could say anything, I feel a hard thump and everything goes black.


	2. Chapter 2: Introductions

As I came to, I slowly looked around. I am in a ship, an old ship, with weapon parts and other oddball metal parts and wires lying around. I stand up and begin looking around at the various consoles and boxes of junk until I come upon a desk, clear of everything except for what looks like a dead ghost.

The shell is worn and slightly rusted with no semblance of color left on it. There are some wires going from the ghost to what looks like a drained power source. As I go to reach for the ghost, a hand grabs my wrist and I look up to see the Fallen Guardian.

"Don't touch her," he speaks in a quiet and solemn tone, "she's not ready yet."

I give him a confused look and slowly turn towards him, "What do you mean? This is a dead ghost, what do you mean it's-"

"She's not dead!" He yells, the despair in his voice echoing through my skull. "She's not dead…" he repeats, nearly whispering.

He pushes me aside, puts his hand on the desk, and stares down at the ghost. I try to nudge him to get his attention, but he has no reaction.

I linger for a moment before I start to wonder where we're at. We're not flying, that much is certain, so I go to the cockpit and look out the window. I see the City in the distance; not far, but not close enough to walk to. I can't get my sparrow because my Ghost is out collecting supplies for future endeavors, probably patiently waiting in my ship by now. I decide that I would walk anyway, and make sure I have everything I need.

My weapons are in my ship, so I look around for anything I could use. I find a dusty scout rifle and worn out sidearm, and proceed to try and find the exit. I find the way out, but I am stopped before I can leave.

The hunter speaks silently, "You can't go, I need you… I need you here."

I reply quickly, "Oh no, I don't do those things with trai-"

He bumps the side of my helmet, "Don't flatter yourself, that's not why I need you." He sighs and continues, "I really need your help because honestly, I can't do what I do by myself anymore."

I stand still for a moment, amazed at his proposition, "What, you can't be a traitor by yourself any-"

He raises his voice, "Stop calling me a trai-"

I jab him in the chest with my index finger, "STOP interrupting me!"

I try to push him backwards with both hands but he doesn't budge. It actually feels as if there's no padding in his armor whatsoever, so I take a step back and get a closer look.

He isn't actually wearing armor, just the under-clothing. He's an Exo, about six feet or taller. His outer chassis is very large with welded pieces of metal stacked on each other and extra wires looping around different areas of his arm.

"What have you done to yourself?" I ask in disbelief.

He looks down at his body, then back up to me and shrugs, "With dangerous work comes dangerous modifications."

I shake my head and throw the weapons aside, "Well, you've obviously got a lot to tell me, so let's get started."

He chuckles, "You might as well make yourself comfortable because we're gonna be here a while."

I go to a less cluttered area of the ship, take off my armor, and toss everything besides my helmet into a corner. I wipe off the front of my helmet and look at my reflection; sometimes I forget what I look like.

I have messy, brown, shoulder-length hair and hazel eyes. There's a certain tired look to my eyes and I am light-skinned. I run my fingers through my hair and, with one last look, I throw my helmet with the rest of my gear.

I return to the hunter in the common area of the ship and sit on a box across from him.

"So, now that I'm comfortable, why don't you tell me your story?"

The hunter chuckles, "Slow down there, we've got time. Why don't we exchange names first?" He looks at me expectantly.

I sigh, look away from him, and mumble, "People call me Amber."

"That wasn't that so hard," he hesitates for a few moments, "As for me; you can call me Xy, short for Xyrok."

I smirk and look back towards him, "Nice to meet you, Xy."

Xy nods at me and, after a couple seconds, claps his hand on his leg, "Alright, let's get to the story-telling!"


	3. Chapter 3: The Vault of Betrayal

This is what I've had already pre-made up until now, so it'll probably be longer between chapters. This one is a bit longer than the first two chapters combined, and I'll probably leave it this length. Feel free to PM me about what you think of the length or anything else. Enjoy!

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 _Narrative change to Xyrok_

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I started as a lowly Hunter; doing as the Vanguard told me, serving the light in the best way I could. I was good at what I did, and some people thought I was too good.

There was a small group of guardians, called The Coalition, who did their best to make sure no other stray guardian rose above them, unless they joined their following. Many complied, and became mindless drones of the game the ringleader made up.

Like I said; I was good at what I did, and the leader of The Coalition had his eye on me. The leader was an Awoken Warlock, whose name was Vesair.

One day, the Vanguard sent me on a very important mission; I was to go support a fireteam in need on Venus. It turned out that these three knuckleheads tried to break into the Vault of Glass with their mediocre weapons and minimal armor. Well they made it in, but they were surrounded by numerous Vex and a large Hydra, called the Templar.

When I got there, the Vault was open and there were many dead Minotaurs and Goblins littering the entrance. I went down and it was completely silent, and the chamber of the Templar was completely empty... Except for one Warlock; half dead, completely defeated, and a dead ghost lying next to him.

I rushed to the guardian and shook him until he woke up, "Warlock, are you alright? Speak to me!" I pulled off his helmet, placed his head on my lap, and smacked him.

The Warlock quickly woke up, grabbing my armor and screaming loud enough to leave an echo, "They're lost in time! They're never coming back! I was spared, but they're lost forever!"

"Dammit, why did you guys come here!? You had to have known how dangerous it was!" I yelled back at the Warlock.

The Warlock calmed down and began to speak quieter, almost in a whisper, "V-Vesair told us… He said we could find treasure, he said-," the Warlock was interrupted as a bullet was sent flying through his head, there was nothing more I could do for him.

I looked around and saw the silhouette of a Hunter on a perch high above where I was. I climbed my way up to the perch, but it was too late, the assassin was gone.

I looked ahead to a path into a different area, and followed it. The path brought me to a remote area outside, above the Vault; no vex, no guardians, but there was a ship. I moved toward the ship to investigate, but as I was about to approach it, it started to take off.

I quickly reacted and called up my ghost, "Silla, you need to transmat me, NOW!"

Silla replied jokingly, "Well, aren't you bossy," and I began to materialize in my ship.

I immediately rushed to the cockpit, with Silla in tow, and pointed out the window at the ship about to exit the atmosphere, "We need to follow that ship!" I quickly strapped in and began to take off as fast as I could.

"Why do we need to follow that ship? Why not that one over there?"

Silla motioned toward a completely different ship that was also leaving the planet. I stared at Silla and started to speed towards the entrance to the Vault.

"Waitwaitwait, I was just kidding!" She exclaimed nervously.

I pulled up immediately and focused my attention on the ship again.

"Whoever is in that ship killed the final survivor of the fireteam we came here for, just as he was about to finish telling me what Vesair told them," I exclaimed as we exited the atmosphere.

"Vesair? You mean the leader of The Coalition?"

"Yes, him… I have a bad feeling about this, but we're gonna follow that guardian anyway."

We followed the ship all the way to Mars, where it landed on the outskirts of the ruins of Freehold. I quickly landed nearby and we followed the guardian into an abandoned building.

It got darker as we walked deeper into the building, until it was as dark as an abyss. It felt as if all sound was immediately swallowed up by the endless darkness. I told Silla to turn on her light, but it was pointless; the room was wide open and empty, so we could only see the light shine on the floor in front of us.

As we continued blindly walking through the abyss, I saw a faint light further ahead of us. I started quickly walking toward the light, and when we approached it, it appeared to be a small wall light.

"They must have run off," I said as I put my back and head against the wall, "Must have been too afraid to fight me."

"Okay, tough guy," Silla said with a giggle. "Would you like me to bring us back?"

I nod and move from the wall, "Yeah, let's get out of here."

I stand there, waiting to see the interior of my ship, but nothing happens.

"Silla?" I look around, suddenly worried.

I put my hand on the wall and began to follow it to my left while calling out for Silla. I only made it a little further before being knocked down, and before I could get up, something started to drag me away. I went to reach for my weapon, but it was gone; everything except for my armor was gone. I tried to reach for whatever was dragging me, but was suddenly knocked unconscious.

When I came to, I noticed that I was in a well-lit room. I looked around and saw that I was surrounded by numerous guardians and was being restrained by two Titans.

I looked forward again and saw him, with Silla in his hand, "Vesair, you bastard, give her back!"

Vesair looked at the struggling ghost in his hand then back at me, "I'll give your precious ghost back to you, but I have to show you something first."

A couple guardians rolled some sort of cylindrical machine with a claw on top next to Vesair, who placed Silla into the machine's claw.

"I could tell you what this is going to do, but I think I'll wait for your reaction."

Vesair pressed the button and I could hear a motor kick on, spinning faster and faster. As time went on, Silla slowly stopped struggling and the motor slowly wound down. Vesair grabbed Silla out of the machine and threw her at my feet.

I trembled as the Titans released me and I fell to my knees, grabbing Silla once I was down.

"What have you done to her?" I asked, nearly whispering.

Vesair came up to me and squatted in front of me, "I took her light... Your precious ghost is dead."

I felt the rage building inside me, but as I went to stand up, I felt a gun being pressed against my head.

"Without a ghost, a guardian is as good as dead... You've been a thorn in my side for too long, and now it's time to end you."

I heard him pull the hammer back on his hand cannon while he moved his head next to mine, "You should have just minded your own business," he whispered, as he pulled the trigger and the world went black.

It was like being stuck in an infinite nightmare; all I could see was Silla's life force being sucked out over and over, and Vesair's insidious grin as he watched me in agony. With a broken mind and a heavy heart, I slowly looked up once more; only to see that there was nobody around me anymore.

As my blurred vision began to slowly clear up, I saw two things in front of me; a dead ghost and a hand cannon. Slightly trembling, I slowly picked up the shell of Silla with both hands and saw that the light in her eye was slowly fading.

"Silla! Silla, it's me, please wake up!" I yelled.

I painfully watched as the light went out, and it then became clear to me what had happened; she used the very last of whatever she had left to bring me back in exchange for her own life. I sat there and wondered why she would do that just to save me. I thought that I was nothing, that she could just find another guardian, so why me?

After many moments, I looked down and saw the hand cannon and picked it up. It was still warm… The hand cannon used to kill me. I set Silla on my lap and inspected the weapon with both hands.

The shape of the weapon was pretty standard, and it was red like blood. It had a bone-white, rib-like design sticking up from both sides of the hammer to the end of the barrel. The design was angled towards the back of the gun, with each rib getting smaller until the end of the barrel. The weapon also had a small knife and flashlight attached to the barrel, and holes for the fingers on the front of the grip like brass knuckles. I decided to name this weapon Bones of Wrath.

I looked in the cylinder of the weapon to see it had eight bullets in it, but I had no other ammo, so I had to be conservative. I holstered the weapon, tied Silla onto a strap on my chest, and began to find a way out. I looked around until I saw a doorway leading back into the abyssal darkness.

I made my way over to the doorway, pulled out Bones of Wrath, and clicked on the flashlight on the side of the barrel. The light was much brighter and shone much further than Silla's light, so I was able to easily find the way out. I didn't bother to look around the building I was in, I had a lot of work to do.

I exited the building out onto the red sands of Mars, and looked around for any possible enemies. I saw nothing so I rushed to where I parked my ship, hoping it was still there. As I approached where I put my ship, I noticed that the assassin Hunter's ship was still where they had parked it when I followed them there.

I carefully made my way to my ship and noticed that the way in was wide open, which could only mean that the hunter was in there. I quietly entered my ship and heard things being tossed around and someone walking through my ship.

I saw the Hunter walking around the common area and quietly picked up a knife that I saw on the ground. While the Hunter was rummaging through a pile of weapon parts; I snuck up behind them and stabbed them in the side while I pinned them against the wall.

"Where is he, you murderer?!" I asked through gritted teeth while slightly twisting the knife.

The female Hunter yelped out in pain, while struggling to speak, "P-please don't kill me! I only did what he told me to do! I never wanted to hurt anyone!"

Usually I can tell when people aren't being truthful with me, but that wasn't the case with this Hunter.

"He… He said that if I didn't get that team killed… He said that…" She began to trail off and stopped struggling.

"What did he say? Tell me," I demanded, as I loosened my grip on the knife.

The Hunter hesitated and spoke quietly, "He said that he would kill my family," she began choking up, "He said that he would make me watch as they slowly bled out, one by one."

I released the Hunter and she slowly followed the wall to the floor while she held the knife.

"I had no idea," I responded, suddenly feeling guilty somehow.

"Of course you didn't," she snapped back, "nobody had any idea. They all called me the Master Assassin because of all the innocents I've killed. They thought I was a legend- "

"What do you mean _all_ the innocents you've killed," I interrupted, with a more stern tone.

The Hunter laughed guiltily, "You think those guardians were the first I've killed? You're more right than you think you are, I _am_ a murderer."

She paused for a few moments, then began speaking again, "Not just murderer though, more like a serial killer… I deserve to be killed, so just go ahead and finish it."

I stood there, conflicted; killing her would be the option normally, but she was forced to do these horrible things. She was just as much victim as the ones she killed.

I broke free of my trance, reached down to the Hunter, and quickly pulled the knife out of her side. She shrieked in pain and held her hand over the wound.

"W-what are you doing? Aren't you going to kill me? I'm a murderer, aren't I?" She yelled.

I threw the knife aside and fell backwards into a sitting position on the floor of my ship.

"I'm not saying you aren't a murderer, but you had no other choice. I think we can redeem you, and maybe even get you back to your family."

She froze up at the mention of her family, and silence hung over us for what seemed like forever.

"My family?" She finally spoke up, "I couldn't go back to them with what I've done, I'm a monster."

"The fact that you show some sign of regret tells me that you aren't a monster, it wasn't your choice and you know it."

As I watched her try to contain the blood from her wound, I tore some cloth off my worn cloak and tossed it her way, "Don't let yourself bleed out, that's no way to go."

She grabbed the piece of cloth and wrapped it around the wound, "So, if you're not going to kill me, what are you going to do with me? Leave me stranded to die in the heat?"

I stood up and held out my hand to help her up, "Well, in exchange for me sparing your life, you're going to help me kill your boss.

She chuckled and grabbed my hand, "Whatever you say, tough guy."


	4. Chapter 4: The Bounty

I stood frozen for a few seconds before I pulled the Hunter towards me to help her up. She struggled as she winced in pain, and it was then that I realized that her Ghost hadn't fixed her up. I didn't ever get hit, so I sort of overlooked that detail.

"Why hasn't your Ghost patched you up?" I asked as I finally got her to her feet.

The Hunter looked down to the ground, "You think your Ghost was the first one that machine was used on?"

"What do you mean?"

"He did it to everyone's Ghost, everyone who was in The Coalition."

"What? Why would he do that to his own people?"

She looked back at me, "He said he needed the light, and that if we got fatally wounded in combat we deserved to die."

"Well do you have your Ghost? Maybe we can get it to-"

She interrupted me with her arm out and her palm facing me, "You don't think someone tried that?" She lowered her arm, "A good friend of mine tried to bring his Ghost back, but Vesair found out. He took all of our Ghosts and made an example out of my friend… He killed him and strung him up like a decoration in our guild area for a month."

"Didn't anyone tell the Vanguard? They would stop him, wouldn't they?"

The Hunter shook her head, "Nobody was brave enough… Nobody wanted to be the next one to be hanged."

I never realized how dangerous Vesair _actually_ was, and I suddenly felt more afraid of him. He had the power to kill his fellow Guardians with ease. For a moment, I had lost all hope; I figured I would just live out the rest of my days in hiding.

Somehow, it seemed the Hunter had heard what I was thinking because she walked up to me, punched me lightly in the chest, and said, "We _are_ going to kill him."

I looked at her in disbelief, "There's no way we can kill him, we're too weak."

"Well, there's plenty of places for us to get our strength up!" She exclaimed confidently.

I chuckled, "Yeah, I guess-… Wait a minute, I don't even know your name. You can't expect me to trust a nameless assassin."

"That's true, but I can't give my name to a stranger who just tried to kill me either."

I sighed and said, "Well, it seems we're at an impasse… Maybe we can come up with nicknames instead."

The Hunter nodded slowly, "Yeah, that might work… I guess you can call me… Lil."

"Ok, Lil it is then," I responded as I began to ponder.

I never was very good at coming up with names, I even made Silla pick her own name since I didn't want to call her 'Ghost', so this was hard. I thought that it should be something cool, something that would cause people to tremble after hearing it. I thought for what felt like an eternity until I finally came up with something.

"You can call me Xy," I screamed internally as it came out of my mouth, thinking myself a colossal idiot. Who uses part of their _actual_ name as a _secret_ nickname?

"Xy, huh?" Lil pauses for a few moments, "Sounds great! Where do we go to first?"

The short silence threw me off a bit, but I brushed it off and replied, "Well, how about Earth?"

"Ugh, I guess," Lil said, sounding disappointed.

"House Devils isn't very powerful right now, so it's our best bet… Especially since neither of us have Ghosts."

"Yeah, you're right," Lil slightly lifted Silla's shell in her hand, "Why do you still have her? If she's dead, she's useless to you, right?"

I moved Lil's hand, grabbing Silla myself and looking at her shell, "She isn't dead… I'm going to bring her back. Everything will be fine once I bring her back."

I expected more silence, but instead was met with the encouraging sound of Lil's voice, "Well, I hope you can get her to come back. I'll help in any way I can, so don't be afraid to ask."

I let Silla hang once more and nodded, "Thanks, Lil."

I told Lil to take a bit of a rest while I got my ship in order and we headed to Earth. She advised me to hide my ship among the wrecked planes within the Mothyard, hoping it might blend in a bit.

When we landed, I equipped myself with my Bones of Wrath and a full-auto scout rifle. Lil took some weapons from my ship, since she left hers on Mars with her ship. She took an old sniper rifle I used in my fireteam days, and an auto rifle that was given to me by an old friend.

Before we left the ship, I grabbed a couple of old school communication devices I had found while patrolling through Skywatch one time.

"Take this, put it on under your helmet," I handed Lil one of the small devices.

She grabbed it with two fingers, inspecting it. "What the hell is this thing? Where does it go?"

I sighed, took off my helmet, and showed her where to attach the device. I put it where my temple would be if I was Human and it made a beeping sound, signifying that it was working.

"See? Easy. Now put yours on and let's get to work."

Lil hesitated for a bit then responded, "I'll just meet you out there."

I shrugged and then made my way out of the ship. Our plan was to look for any beacons that had bounties for Fallen targets. This was difficult since we didn't have our Ghosts, but Lil said she knew how to decrypt the messages inside of them.

I scanned the area while I waited, observing sleeping Dregs in the distance and Vandals keeping watch. It was night time, and there was minimal light from the moon that night; perfect for Fallen hunting.

After a minute or so, Lil came out of my ship and we tested our comms. They worked as well as could be expected; they were old Golden Age tech, and I had Silla fix them up the best she could. Lil thought it was amazing, but they didn't come close to comparing to the comms our Ghosts would have provided.

We made our final preparations and began searching for beacons. We split up so that we could cover more ground and be less noticeable. We spent an hour looking for beacons, and we had managed to scrounge up ten of them. It took a little while for Lil to finish decrypting messages, but it was still dark by the time she was done.

Out of all the beacons, only one had a useful bounty; a Fallen Captain was taking and torturing new Guardians to get whatever info he needed. Not only that, but he would also kill Fallen under his command just for their Ether. The message said the Captain had taken command within the walls of the Cosmodrome.

We quickly made our way over to the entrance of the wall that was in the Divide, somehow undetected. There were two Shanks and two Vandals posted at the door, as well as two Vandal Snipers watching over the entrance from the nearby building.

Without saying a word, Lil made her way up the building to silently take out the snipers, giving me a signal when she was finished. I quietly made my way to the entrance and pulled out my knife, along with two throwing knives.

I quickly made my way forward and threw a knife at one Shank while lunging toward the first Vandal, stabbing it as it reacted to the exploding Shank. I twisted around and threw another knife at the other Shank, finishing my rotation with my knife in the second Vandal's chest.

As I pulled my knife out of the Vandal and it fell to the ground, I looked toward Lil's location and spread my arms in a sort of boasting gesture. I heard a low growl and a scoff through my comms device before Lil started making her way toward me.

I chuckled as she approached me, "You gotta do better than that; you're down two."

"Whatever, you're lucky this is a close quarters job," she said with an annoyed tone.

Lil continued to walk past me into the entrance, pulling out the auto rifle I lent her. I shrugged and followed her lead, pulling out my Bones of Wrath.

The first room we entered was empty and silent, but you could hear the sounds of the Fallen echo through the walls. We continued through the room into the main valley within the wall, and that's when we saw them all.

There were almost enough Fallen to make up a small army; they were patrolling around, sleeping, or communicating with each other. I looked over to Lil and, although I couldn't see her expression, she seemed uneasy. I could see that she was tightly gripping her weapon and fidgeting every few seconds.

I put my hand on her shoulder and she jumped slightly, "We got this. Why don't you go find somewhere to set up and watch over me? I'll try to find out where our mark is."

She silently nodded and made her way up some supports, climbing like nothing I'd ever seen. After she was out of sight, I focused my attention to the open area and how I would get through it undetected. I was on a platform several feet above the actual ground, so I had to be careful with dropping down.

I grabbed onto the side of the platform, letting my body hang, and dropped to the ground as silently as possible. I quickly snuck behind a large metal box that was hidden within the darkness. I made my way past multiple sleeping Dregs and surveying Shanks, until I finally came across a slightly hidden doorway.

I softly spoke to Lil through the comms device, "I think this might be where the target is; there's no other Fallen around here and I can hear noises from in there."

There was no response from her end, so I thought that maybe we were too far away. I had gotten too far to head back, so I went in with my weapon up in case I was attacked.

In the doorway was a narrow corridor that had a ninety degree turn almost immediately. I slowly turned the corner and saw the corridor continued straight until it reached what looked like a small room. I slowly and quietly made my way forward until I reached the room; it was completely dark, just like the building on Mars.

I hesitated before turning on my flashlight, but when I did turn it on, I saw Lil on the ground in front of me; bound up and unconscious. I began to rush to her when all of the lights suddenly flashed on, nearly blinding me. I shielded my eyes for a couple seconds before moving my arm and seeing a large Captain holding Lil by the head.

I aimed for the Captain, but it suddenly started speaking, "Foolish Guardian. That beacon you found was a trap, and now I have your friend. Do you really think I would operate from here?"

I started trembling because of the pure power I could feel emanating from this Captain. I almost dropped my weapon out of fear, but I willed myself to take aim once more.

"D-drop her right now! I'm not afraid to shoot you!"

Suddenly, the Captain disappeared with Lil and I heard a voice directly behind me, "You should be afraid, Guardian."

I jumped and quickly turned around, which caused me to fall to the ground and drop my weapon.

The Captain laughed before speaking, "If you're feeling brave, you can find me on Venus. Don't wait too long, Guardian, or your friend may meet their end."

The Captain disappeared once more with a laugh; only this time, for good. I picked up my weapon and slowly made my way to my feet. It was suddenly quiet for a second, until I heard something phase in behind me.

I turned around to see a powerful looking Servitor that had a copious amount of Void energy emanating from it. I turned around to try and run, but there were several Fallen blocking the exit; not attacking me, just blocking the exit. I only had one choice: I had to fight the Servitor so I could find and help Lil… I got her into that mess after all.

I heard the Servitor charging up to fire at me and I waited until it fired to dodge out of the way. I quickly turned toward the Servitor, took aim, and fired at it; the Bones of Wrath made a quiet thumping noise. I thought it jammed until I saw how severely the Servitor reacted. This weapon had some sort of suppression module and was more powerful than I expected.

The Servitor made a deafening sound and started to fire more rapidly while moving in on me. I knew I could take it down with a few more shots, but it was keeping on me so I couldn't take aim that well.

I checked my effects to see what might help: I had three throwing knives and a grenade that was many centuries old. I grabbed the grenade and lobbed it in front of the Servitor, which caused the Servitor to focus its attention on the grenade. The grenade didn't do anything because I forgot to pull the pin… I doubt it would have worked anyway… But it momentarily caught the attention of the Servitor, which gave me the opportunity to fire three shots off at its eye.

The Servitor made the loud sound again, but this time I fired one last shot at it. It suddenly stopped, lowered to the ground a bit, and exploded into pieces. I exhaled and relaxed my legs until I realized that there was still a group of Fallen in the doorway.

I looked over to see the Fallen, still not attacking, but they seemed like they were in shock. I began to walk towards them and they all suddenly knelt. I took a step back, and my confusion must have shown because a more elderly looking Vandal appeared from the crowd.

"That Servitor was nearly as strong as Deksis, the Captain you encountered earlier. If you could defeat the Servitor you have a strong chance against Deksis."

"I don't understand, if that's the case, why don't you all try to kill me?"

"That's simple… We're all his slaves that he uses for Ether once we get too old. I'm originally from House Judgment," the Vandal motioned to a nearby Dreg, "this one is from House Winter. We believe that you can kill Deksis and free all of us from slavery."

 _None of this makes any sense_ , I thought. _Why would I, a Guardian, help the Fallen? I'm supposed to be their enemy, aren't I? If I help them, will I be able to save Lil? Will they turn on me?_

These thoughts went around my head several times, and I almost didn't notice that the elderly Vandal had approached me. I looked at him, still dumbfounded.

"You can trust us, Guardian. If you agree to free us, we will help you in defeating Deksis the best we can."

The Vandal extended one of his arms for a handshake, and I just looked at it. I thought that if I agreed, I would be throwing away my title of 'Guardian'. I was alive because I became a Guardian, so why forsake that role? After a minute of thinking, I had made my decision; I knew what had to be done.


	5. Chapter 5: Upgrade

I took my focus away from the Vandal's hand, then looked at the gun in my hand. I opened its cylinder and saw that it only had three bullets remaining; not enough for me to get out of there if I wanted to. I slapped the cylinder closed and holstered my weapon, looking back at the Vandal who still had his arm extended.

"I'll help you then," I grabbed the Vandal's hand, "but since I don't have my Ghost, I don't think I can do much without being killed."

The Vandal and I shook hands and he motioned to the destroyed Servitor beside us, "Use the parts from the Servitor, you can draw Ether from them."

"I don't know, wouldn't Ether eventually turn me into one of you? I've heard stories about Fallen deriving from Humans."

"Well… I cannot confirm that, but you would not have to worry about that too much, would you?"

"What do you-"

The Vandal held up a hand, "Save your energy, I know a machine when I see one." He suddenly turned around and spoke to the group behind him in their native tongue, and four Dregs gathered up the scattered pieces of the Servitor.

The Vandal turned back to me and motioned toward the room's exit, "Show us where your ship is, and I will make these parts into something useful for you."

I nodded and made my way out with Fallen and Servitor parts in tow. Outside, the light from the Sun was smothered by the thick morning fog, which made it easy to get back to my ship undetected. When we arrived at my ship, the Dregs dropped the parts inside then scattered off in different directions.

The Vandal and I entered my ship and stood in front of the pile of parts that the Dregs haphazardly threw on the floor.

I stared at the pile for several seconds before turning to the Vandal, "So, you can call me Xy… What should I call you?"

"You may call me Scav," he responded slowly, seemingly lost in the pile of junk.

"O-kaaayy, Scav it is then. So what are we doing with all this junk?"

Scav was silent for a few seconds before speaking, "Go remove your armor and come back, let us get to work immediately."

His response threw me off a bit, but I went to the corner and removed all my armor anyway. When I returned to him, the pile was smaller and he had four pieces made up that looked like two arms and legs.

"That was pretty fast… What do you have there?" I asked, peeking over his shoulder.

"These are the housings for your modifications," he said as he welded one last piece together with a small tool, "with the parts we have here, I can make you a speed or a strength modification; which type would you like?"

I thought about which would be more needed to defeat a Captain like Deksis; _speed is usually useful for regular Captains, but Deksis is on_ _a completely different level. If I had strength, I might be able to go face to face against him with minimal difficulty._

As Scav finished up the housings, he looked up to me, "I should also tell you that as long as you can find parts, I can make you modifications. There's no limit to the modifications you can make to yourself."

I nodded my head and finally came up with a decision, "Alright, I've decided. I would like you to make the strength modification for me."

"Very well, it will be finished momentarily. I should warn you though, it might be slightly painful… Also, these modifications insert themselves into your current wiring, so don't be surprised if you have a lower amount of energy for a while."

I watched Scav as he started putting things together within the arm-shaped housings, "That sounds counter-productive… How will I get it back?"

"The parts from the Servitor are infused with Ether; after about an hour it will start to spread throughout the rest of your circuitry, causing you to have more energy than before."

It only took a few more moments for Scav to finish up the modifications, after which he positioned them on my arms. They were kind of heavy and difficult to lift with my current strength.

"Aren't these things kind of big? Also, I thought you said it might hurt," I said, struggling to lift my arms.

Scav pulled a needle-like device out of a pouch on his waist, "They need to be started up first, and that is what this is for."

He inserted the tip of the device into a small hole in the housing of my right arm when suddenly, a shock pulsed through my body. It felt like all of my systems had shut down and started back up just in time for me to stop myself from face planting.

I looked around and noticed that my vision was partly static and distorted, changing colors based on what was in front of me. When I tried to speak, all that came out was garbled nonsense that consisted of different sounds. Any sound that was made echoed a million times over, which made it it almost impossible to know what the sound could be.

I tried to stand up, but any strength in my legs was gone and I fell onto my back. As I stared at the ceiling, my body twitched and my sight suddenly blinked to nothingness.

* * *

 _Another vision, only this time it isn't a nightmare; it's a dream of a Hunter, a Warlock, and a Titan. I can't make out their faces, but they all have their own unique Ghosts. The Hunter's Ghost is dark gray with purple stripes, and has four thick needle shapes sticking out of the back. The Warlock's Ghost is standard, but its orange color is as bright as the sun. The Titan's Ghost is a red and white pattern of some sort, and is broader on the top and bottom parts of its shell._

 _The Guardians seem rather close; they go everywhere and do everything together. They share stories of past adventures and plan new ones with ease. They're the best fireteam around, almost as good as the Vanguard… But an impending doom hangs above them, and it slowly begins to swallow them whole._

* * *

As I came to, I saw that Scav was sitting beside me and snoozing. I sat up slowly, nudged him, and he jumped to his feet defensively. He looked around until he saw me, and dropped his guard.

"Do not do that to me while I am sleeping, I could have killed you."

I apologized and stood up unsteadily; it seemed that everything was in order, but it felt like I was asleep for ages. I curled and flexed both of my arms to make sure they were usable and noticed the mods weren't as heavy anymore.

"So it's finished? I have all my energy back?" I asked as I continued testing my arms.

Scav nodded, "Yes, they should be fully functional."

"Great," I replied, extending a hand for a handshake, "Thanks for these, I should be able to get Lil back now."

Scav hesitated for a few moments before returning the gesture, "Yes, they shall prove to be of good use. If you find more parts, you know where you can find me."

Scav exited my ship, leaving the pile of Servitor parts and the leg mod housings behind.

"Geez, he couldn't even pick up after himself," I said out loud, only to be answered by silence.

After a few more moments of silence, it occurred to me that I needed to decide what to do next; my options were to go straight to Venus and knock Deksis' teeth in, or find more powerful enemies that I could get mod parts from. I chose to go straight to Venus because I didn't want to know what would happen to Lil if I took too long to get there; so I fired up my ship, left Earth's atmosphere, and made my way to Venus where I landed my ship in the Headlands.

There were a lot of places around Venus, so I needed to narrow down my search area. After much thought, I came to the consensus that Deksis could either be in the Academy or Winter's Lair. While Fallen had been known to hole up in the Academy, I decided that Winter's Lair would be the better choice… For obvious reasons.

I put my armor on and stocked up on ammunition before I made my way over to the Ember Caves, where the area was quiet and deserted. The same could be said for the entrance to Winter's Lair, which was normally guarded by numerous Fallen. Once I walked into the entrance, I found the reason for the chilling silence: there were at least a dozen Fallen corpses within the entrance, with more leading inside.

I wondered if it was Deksis who caused all that death as I cautiously walked inside with my weapon drawn. As I approached the main cavern, I could hear shooting and the sounds of Fallen being killed. I peeked around the corner and saw a Warlock and a Titan standing together, surrounded by dead Dregs and scrap from destroyed Shanks.

I holstered my weapon and walked out to the Guardians with my arms outstretched, "Hey, guys! What's going on in here? Killing some Fallen? You're doing a great job."

"Hey there, we got this place under control so you don't need to worry about it," the Warlock replied, reloading her pulse rifle.

"Oh, that's good. I'll just be going this way, so don't mind me," I said, gesturing toward the pathway up through the cavern, "I lost my… Father's… cloak in here yesterday, so… yeah, I'm just… looking for it."

As I began to walk away from the pair, the Titan spoke up, "Wait a second, you sound familiar. Aren't you that Hunter that Vesair killed?"

"Uhh no, I… I don't know wh-"

"Yeah, you are! I would notice that voice anywhere. The armor too, it's the exact armor!" The Titan exclaimed excitedly, slapping his Warlock companion on her arm repeatedly.

"Stop that, you're crazy," she responded, slapping the Titan's hand away, "he wouldn't be here if he were dead."

"No, it's definitely him," the Titan put his pulse rifle on his back, "Look, either way, we could use your help. We're looking for our teammate and her tracking device says she's here."

"Tracking device? Why would you use a tracking device for your teammate?"

"We all have one… Since we can't keep in contact using our Ghosts, it's how we keep track of each other."

"I see," I said, as I zoned into nothingness.

 _These Guardians are a true trio, ready to sacrifice their own lives for each other. Even with the risk of dying forever, they press on to save their teammate. Nothing matters except for them being together, and if one dies then they all die;_ I thought.

I slowly shook my head, "I'm sorry, but I'm here for someone as well. I got her into the mess she's in, so I have to get her out."

"It's alright," the Warlock reassured me, "a third person would have been nice, but in the end she's our responsibility."

I quickly nodded, "Right. Good luck finding your friend, I'll go ahead and clear the path."

The Titan chuckled, "Thanks, good luck to you as well."

I jogged off through the cavern to the end of the cave, which led to a large outside area. The large Ketch parked on the cliffside could be seen from the cave's exit; if Lil was anywhere, it would be in there.

I made my way down to the bridge that connected the ground to the Ketch's dock, undisturbed. As I began to set foot on the dock, I heard something come through my comms device. It sounded like struggling and a Captain yelling, followed by the sound of Lil as if she had just been gut punched.

I moved silently but quickly into the Ketch, looking through every door I passed. I eventually came across an area that looked like holding cells, all of which were open, except for one. I had to find a way to open the door, but I had no time to find controls. I wound up my right arm for a heavy punch, hoping the mods would prove to be useful. After taking a deep breath, I forced my fist forward and made contact with the door. I was suddenly surrounded by smoke and looked down at my arm to see it unharmed, but the fabric on my gauntlet was torn to shreds and the mod underneath it glowed purple.

I waited for a few more seconds while the smoke cleared and saw the door had been blown in. I stood frozen, staring at the obliterated door, unable to believe my own strength. It was only the sound of Lil faintly calling out to me that broke me from my trance.

I looked inside the cell and saw her lying on the ground; her armor was dented all over the place, the visor on her helmet was cracked, and she was attempting to stop the bleeding from the wound I had caused. I tore a shred from my cloak as I rushed over to her and put pressure on the wound, wrapping the shred of cloth around it.

"Lil, it's me! It's Xy! I'm going to get you out of here!" I said loudly as I struggled to tie the cloth with my trembling hands.

"Xy… How did you get that door open?" She replied with ragged breaths.

"Don't worry about that right now, I need to get you out of here!"

I finally got the cloth knotted together and picked up Lil in a cradled carrying position. I carefully stepped over the remnants of the door and began fast-walking my way out of the Ketch. Alarms were blaring and I could hear Fallen yelling and crying out in anger throughout the ship.

Lil slowly looked toward my bare arm, "What did you do?" She asked in as surprised a tone as she could manage.

"I'll explain everything later, just save your energy. I'm getting you out of here, okay? I'm getting you out of here and then we'll go defeat Vesair together," I replied desperately.

As we neared the exit of the Ketch, more and more Fallen could be heard behind us; they knew where we were, and they were coming for us. Just before we could exit, the door closed on us, and a large group of Fallen flooded into the room from behind us.

I nearly gave up hope as I looked upon the army of Fallen before me, but then I heard a bang on the other side of the door. I acted as quickly as I could and dashed to the side as the door exploded, and when the smoke cleared two figures could be seen; one was the Titan with a machine gun at his hip, and the other was the Warlock with a rocket launcher over her shoulder.

The Titan did a double take in my direction before he yelled out in surprise, "You!? Is that Lil? That's who we came here for!"

I sighed and chuckled, "You don't say."

The Titan began to open fire at the Fallen before the Warlock rushed over to inspect Lil, "I'm glad she's safe, but she doesn't look too good," she looked at me and talked sternly, "you need to go now, we'll provide covering fire."

I nodded and made my way out the door as the two Guardians continued to annihilate the Fallen. As I stepped off the dock, onto the path away from the Ketch, I heard a loud Captain war cry. I turned around and saw the two launched out of the Ketch, landing on their backs on the dock.

The Titan saw me and yelled, "Go! Get. Her. Out of here!"

I couldn't move, I wanted to help them but I needed to get Lil out of there. The Titan yelled once more, and as I was about to turn and run, I saw him; Deksis stomped out onto the dock and up to the two Guardians. He drove his sword into the unconscious Warlock that was lying on the ground… She stood no chance. The Titan quickly hopped up and punched Deksis in the abdomen, but to no avail; Deksis slowly looked at the Titan and grabbed him by the throat, choking him until his body went limp.

I watched in terror as he dispatched the guardians in less than ten seconds. I looked down to Lil to see that she was unconscious, and I began to run away. Halfway down the path from the Ketch, Deksis appeared in front of me and knocked me down. I dropped Lil, and he kicked her body towards a rock while pinning me down with his other foot.

He looked at me and began to speak, "I told you that you are foolish, Guardian. I commend your bravery, but this is where you meet your end."

In my head, I was both terrified and angry at Deksis; he killed those Guardians with such ease, and no hesitation. They were all companions, ready to take on the universe together; but their Light was snuffed out just as quick as when they obtained it. In my head I blamed myself for everything that happened, but I knew it wasn't my fault at all. I knew I had to be strong for those who weren't strong enough.

Deksis began to bring down his freshly bloodied sword on me and I managed to lean out of the way, but not without sacrifice. The sword came down on my left arm and separated it from my body, bringing a wave of pain and adrenaline. Deksis leaned down and picked up my arm, inspecting it.

"It seems that you have been busy, Guardian; these are my Servitor's parts. I may have underestimated you… But it does not matter, you will die regardless."

He tossed my arm into the chasm below and I managed to catch him off guard and push him off of me.

"You'll pay for that, you bastard. You'll pay for all of this!"

I took a few steps back and paused before rushing towards Deksis. He swung his sword at my neck, but I slid under it and into his feet, causing him to face plant. I stepped on the hand holding his sword, causing him to let go of it, and kicked his sword over the edge of the path.

Deksis stood up and began to pull out another sword, "You are weak, Guardian, you will never defeat me!"

I punched him in the abdomen, which caused him to stagger before unsheathing his sword. I then kicked him back down to the ground while pulling his sword out of its sheath.

"I may be foolish, Deksis," I said as I slowly pushed the sword through his chest, "but in the end, I'm the one who's still living."

"You will not get away with this, Guardian," Deksis said as he attempted to pull the sword out.

I took out my Bones of Wrath and pressed it against his head, "Watch me."

I pulled the trigger and watched as the Ether poured out of his corpse. I exhaled a sigh of relief as I holstered my weapon and made my way over to Lil, who was still barely breathing.

"Lil, Lil, wake up. It's over, I killed him. I can get you out of here now."

Lil softly spoke through short breaths, "I knew you could. It's good to know that our deaths weren't in vain."

"Lil, what do you mean? You're not dead, you're-"

"I'm not going to make it, Xy. You know that just as well as I do."

"What about your family? Your fami-… Didn't you want to see them?"

"Of course I did, but they won't want to see me like this… I don't want them to see me like this."

"But Lil-"

She pulled out a coin with the Hunter emblem on one side and the name 'Lilith' engraved on it, and handed it to me. I flipped it over and it had an engraving of the Traveler in all its glory during the Golden Age.

"My little brother gave this to me when he found out I had come back as a Guardian… He was so amazed, but he didn't understand what I really was. My parents, on the other hand, didn't like the idea; they said they could never love a monster."

Lil then told me to bring the coin to her brother and told me where I could find him. I told her she should do it herself, but I knew full well that she was done for. She died a few minutes later, talking about how great her fireteam was all the way to the end. It was peaceful, how she went… Almost as if she had fallen into a deep sleep.

I tore half of her cloak off and laid her body down with her hands at her sides. I took part of the Titan's mark and some cloth from the Warlock's robe, and placed them in the same fashion next to Lil. The Titan had a rescue beacon on him, so I deployed it next to their bodies and hoped that the Fallen wouldn't beat the Vanguard there.

I didn't know them very well... the pain I felt was from guilt; I inadvertently killed that entire team by going after Deksis. Lil and I weren't very different though, and I'm sure we would have made a good team had our time not been cut short.

I rested near the bodies for a moment before I left… I still had plenty of unfinished business, and only one arm to do it with.


	6. Chapter 6: Don't Blink

I carefully made my way back to my ship with the cloth from the defeated Guardians along with Deksis' cloak and salvaged tech from his body. I dropped the new tech in its own pile so I wouldn't lose it and sat down on the floor with the various pieces of cloth in front of me.

Each of the pieces were unique and served as a loose description of the ones who used them. Deksis' cloak was tattered and black in color, with Ether stains scattered across its surface. The Titan's mark was red with burn marks and holes from bullets, along with charred edges. The Warlock's piece of robe was light blue and seemed brand new, almost as if it had its own protective shielding. Lil's cloak had a sort of chameleon effect, matching the color of whatever surrounded it, and had small tears throughout.

I decided to make my own cloak out of all these pieces, to remember allies that were lost and enemies that I defeated. I assembled the pieces so that the left side of the cloak would hang over where my arm used to be and the right side would hang over my back. I retrieved my sewing kit that I had often used for cloak repairs and attempted to sew the pieces together myself. As I expected, it was impossible to sew them together with only one arm, so I decided to go to Earth and see if Scav would do it as well as make me some new mods.

Deksis had control of a lot of Fallen on Earth, so when I landed I found some Dregs that were sporting black and asked them to find Scav. I'm not sure if they understood me or if they knew who I was, but they began to take aim at me before they looked at me for a moment and ran off. I shrugged it off and waited on a rock near my ship for a while until I saw Scav making his way towards me. I hopped up and greeted him as I went to meet him half way.

Scav immediately looked at my missing arm, "What happened to your arm? Did you flee?"

"No, I killed Deksis, but he took my arm before I finished him off… You're good at making things, do you think you could fix it?"

Scav shook his head, "Besides the fact that your species is especially intricate, I do not have the materials to make anything that would be sufficient enough."

I sighed, "That's alright… I'll make it work somehow. More importantly though, I nabbed some new stuff off Deksis that I thought you might like to play with."

We entered my ship, and I showed Scav the new pile of parts on the floor. He sat down and dug through the pile, inspecting each individual piece before placing it down in its own spot. By the time he had gotten through the pile, he had the pieces assembled in a circle around him.

Scav looked at each piece, then at me, "I can make a teleportation modification so you can teleport like Deksis did. He was able to teleport almost any place that he could think of, more than what most other Captains could do."

"Wow, that's amazing. You can remake it so that it isn't any weaker?"

"The strength of these modifications relies on the amount of Ether the user has in their system. Deksis had more Ether than most Captains, so his power was almost limitless. I am surprised that you had the power to stand against him with just that strength modification."

To be honest, I was surprised that I was able to step foot on that Ketch, but something pushed me to go forward. Maybe it was my desire to save Lil, maybe I wanted to exact revenge, but I think the most likely reason was that I just wanted to test my strength.

I removed my armor and clothing as Scav requested, and saw that he had made what looked like some sort of stick figure with one arm. He told me to turn around and he put the modification on my arm, legs, head, and running the height of my back.

"This modification may be a bit more painful than the first," he said as he finished securing the modification, "since it's larger, it will need access across more of your body at once."

I chuckled nervously, "Sounds great, I love pain."

Scav didn't respond as he pulled out the needle tool.

"I just have to ask before you do that, there's some cloth over there that I've arranged to make into a cloak… Do you think you could sew it together for me? As you could imagine, it's pretty difficult to do with just one hand."

"Sounds easy enough," Scav replied. "Now, brace yourself and try not die from the pain," he said as he stuck the needle in the mod.

"Wait-," I was interrupted by a painful shock throughout my whole body, but was unable to cry out in pain. It felt like an eternity before it stopped and I fell to my knees, trying to find the strength to keep myself awake. I stared blankly at the wall of my ship until everything went black.

* * *

 _I think I see two familiar Guardians; my Hunter and… A Titan! They seem to be sad though… Sad about something that has happened. There's someone missing… I think… a Warlock! A Warlock is missing, but where did he go? The Titan and my Hunter don't talk to each other anymore… It feels like there's something they want to talk about, but they won't talk about it for some reason._

 _The Titan seems to be more and more tired whenever I see him pass by… What is he doing? I don't see him for weeks, what happened to him? I become very sad… But wait, that's… Titan's red Ghost! I see it with the Vanguard, but… It said that the Titan was consumed by the Darkness. What does that mean? The Darkness is gone, right?_

 _My Hunter… He seems even sadder than before with the news about the Titan. He decides to talk to a man who specializes in his kind. My Hunter says he's sorry, and that I'll have to help him remember important things. I watch as the man uses some machine and my Hunter's body goes limp for a little while… But when he wakes up, the man greets him with, "Welcome back, Guardian."_

 _I guess it's time once more… Time to change who I've been acting as…_

* * *

I woke up and was still in the same position as I was before I blacked out. I sat back on my feet and saw that Scav was gone and the cloak I asked to be made was in front of me. It was sewn together perfectly, exactly how I had envisioned it; he even rigged the hood from my old cloak to the new one. I put all my armor on and then I put the cloak on, and it fit just how I wanted it.

Now that I had my new mod, I needed to test it out; I tried to think of the inside of the Cosmodrome walls where I first encountered Deksis, and I eventually teleported… Five feet outside of my ship. _Great,_ I thought. I began to walk back into my ship until I decided to try teleporting again to get the hang of it. I focused on the inside of my ship and appeared inside of it after a few seconds. Although it was slow and I couldn't go far, it was still pretty cool.

After I got some rest, I went to the Moon to find some Servitors; I needed to increase my Ether output to make my mods more powerful. I dropped my ship near Archer's Line and walked to a nearby facility that was overrun by Fallen. The faint purple glow on the three Dregs and two Vandals posted near the entrance told me that there was a Servitor inside.

I began to move closer to the facility when a sudden bolt of Arc energy wizzed past my head. I took cover behind a conveniently placed barrier and pulled out my Bones of Wrath. I quickly peeked over the barrier and saw three Vandals standing on top of a small building in front of the facility, equipped with Wire Rifles and aiming at my position.

I took a deep breath and rushed towards the building with my head down. The Vandals immediately started firing at me as I ran, missing by mere inches or shooting where my left arm once was. As I approached the building I shot one bullet at each Vandal, immediately killing two and injuring one.

I teleported up to the top of the building and found the injured Vandal struggling to crawl toward the Wire Rifle that must have been thrown away from it after it was shot. I placed a foot on the Vandal's back and delivered a bullet to its head as it desperately tried to call for help. I watched as the essence of the Ether from the freshly killed Vandal was absorbed into my armor, causing my strength mod to glow purple and my teleport mod to glow blue.

"That didn't happen when I killed Deksis, maybe Scav added that feature with my teleport mod," I mumbled to myself.

I reloaded my gun and refocused my attention on the facility, still guarded by glowing Fallen. I pictured the entrance in my head and in seconds, I was teleported behind the guards. Startled, they quickly turned around before I grabbed the weapon of one Vandal and kicked it backwards. I threw the weapon at one Dreg to stagger it, then grabbed the other Vandal by the throat and threw it towards the two Dregs that were close together. Immediately, I pulled out my gun once more and fired off five shots at each of the Fallen, collecting more Ether from each casualty.

I quietly walked into the entrance of the facility, where I could hear the low rumbling of the Servitor as it sat idly in the room. It didn't notice me as I turned the corner into the abandoned operations room covered in Moon dust. Since the Servitor was facing away from me, I grabbed its attention by throwing a rock at the wall behind me. As it turned around, I took aim and fired at its eye, just barely missing.

The Servitor recoiled and groaned, then proceeded to teleport outside. I ran outside to see it teleporting away towards the Hellmouth; I used my own teleportation to get there, making it halfway with the first teleport. I caught up to the Servitor before it could enter the Gatehouse, firing the remaining two shots in my weapon's cylinder at it and destroying it. I absorbed double the Ether from the Servitor compared to what I got from every Vandal and Dreg so far.

I began to pick up parts that I deemed useful, when I heard a roar from the right and turned to see a Hive Knight beginning to bring its sword down on me. I quickly dropped the parts I had gathered and stopped the sword with my hand just in time. The Knight began to push the sword against me, and my arm glowed purple as I pushed back.

Eventually, I pushed the sword almost completely toward the Knight in this reverse tug-of-war battle. I was about to push the Knight away when it suddenly smacked me away with the back of its free claw. I flew backwards a good ten or so feet, unable to move once I landed. There was a ringing in my head, and I could barely make out the Knight as he walked up to me and stomped on my head.

* * *

 _He's changed again… Before, he relied on others to defeat enemies and overcome obstacles; now, he seems to stray away from others, wishing only to be alone. Before, he was beloved by everyone for his friendliness and confidence; now, he's targeted by a powerful figure because of his strength and vulnerability of being alone._

 _I too, have changed… Once careless and ignorant, I am now more observant and calculated. The only difference between us is that I remember everything that has ever happened. I remember the years that we've been together, while he only knows of a week of being activated. I wish I could tell him everything, but I've been instructed not to… For his own good._

 _I hear whispers around the Tower about him… Plots for his demise. I fear something dark will soon befall us, and I don't think I'll be able to save him._

* * *

When I woke up, I was stuck to the wall of a circular, greenish-white room with four doors. I didn't know exactly where I was until the Knight from before came in through one of the doors, revealing the outside of the room. I recognized the outside of the room as the chamber that housed the Shrine of Oryx; I had been sent there one time to collect some data on the Shrine when the Tower Warlocks sensed some sort of tremor coming from there.

The Knight stood in front of me and planted the blade end of its sword on the ground with both claws; it then looked down and began to make a low humming noise. I realized then that this Knight meant to sacrifice me to their God, and I knew I had to get out as quick as I could. My arm was fully encased and wouldn't move, and it didn't work when I tried teleporting either.

I nearly gave up when the Knight finished its hymn and prepared to drive its sword through me, until I heard a loud blast come from outside the room and the Knight disintegrated into Solar ashes. As the ashes fell to the ground, I could see the figure of a Hunter with purple armor that beared the golden sigil of the Queen of the Reef.

"We got a one-armed Guardian in here," she called out behind her, holstering her Golden Gun.

A Warlock, also clad in the Queens colors, pushed the Hunter aside and walked up to me, "Now, what are you doing down here?"

"Sightseeing," I replied with a monotonous tone.

"I.. See," the Warlock replied, "Let's… Get you out of this stuff, shall we?"

The Warlock called for his Ghost and it began cutting me out of the husk that held me to the wall. Once I was free, he led me out into the chamber where the Hunter and a Titan, who was also wearing that signature purple and gold, were waiting.

"Ah, Queen's Guard… Great," I mumbled to myself. I'd had a couple run-ins with groups of these guys before about bounties on Fallen, but they never seemed interested in the Hive.

"What's that?" The Warlock asked, seemingly annoyed.

"Uh, nothing… Look, I gotta go, so I'll let you guys get back to what you were doing," I began to teleport when the Titan grabbed my arm.

"What is that blue glow coming from under your armor?" She asked, tightening her grip.

"Oh-ho, that? Oh, that's nothing, just an armor effect," I nervously replied, attempting to shake free of the Titan's grasp.

"Liar," the Titan's voice boomed as she tore the fabric off of my armor. "This looks like Fallen-made tech!"

"We should bring him to the Queen," the Hunter added flatly, "she would love to see this."

I attempted to shake free from the Titan some more, but to no avail. I decided that I had to get out of there, the Queen and I weren't exactly on good terms and those mods would have been the perfect reason for her to kill me. I pictured the facility in Archer's Line and teleported only as far as the Hellmouth.

I turned around and noticed the Titan had been brought with me, but she seemed startled and confused. I took the opportunity to try and teleport the rest of the way to my ship, but it didn't work at all. I looked to the Titan once more and noticed that she had regained her bearings, so I decided to just run. She hesitated before she began to sprint after me, well behind me but slowly gaining.

I ran along the Hellmout, back towards Archer's Line where my ship was parked. As I made my way up the slope away from the Hellmouth, I turned around and saw that the Titan was right on my heels. As she inched closer, she reached for my cloak as it flowed behind me.

I suddenly thought of an idea, and hoped I was close enough to execute my brilliant plan. I slowed down ever so slightly, enabling the Titan to grab my cloak and I once again attempted to teleport to my ship. This time it worked, and I looked at the Titan to see that she was dazed by the event that transpired. I proceeded to turn around and pull my arm back to charge up a punch; once my mod glowed brightly, I pushed forward with everything I had and struck the Titan in the stomach.

The Titan grunted from the hit and flew backwards, sliding across the ground as she landed. I turned around and immediately ran into my ship, prepping for takeoff once I was inside. As I took off, I could see the Hunter and the Warlock zoom in on their sparrows. The Warlock rushed to the Titan's side while the Hunter began to fire at my ship, but it was too late.

Once I believed I was far enough away, I let my ship slowly float through space. I needed to decide what my next course of action was, and I needed to do it quick. I had just lost any new parts I could have possibly used and if I took time to go back or look for more, I might have been caught. I decided that I needed to make my move on Vesair as soon as possible; I sat forward and accelerated my ship towards Earth.


	7. Chapter 7: Imprisonment

_Hey there readers! It's been quite a while since I've published anything new, but here is the most recent chapter of TFG! Life has prevented me from being able to work on this for a while but I'm finally able to get back into it after four months. Just a side note that it wasn't any negative comment that caused me to stop (although the timing seemed too coincidental). Just know that you don't need to worry about any negative comments that come up because they don't bother me because I like my story and I know others do too. Well, I'll let you get to reading... I hope you enjoy, and as always, feel free to leave any feedback!_

* * *

As soon as I had entered Earth's atmosphere, I began to head towards the Tower and hoped I would be able to dock without any trouble. As I approached the Tower, I managed to hack my scavenged communications device to use Amanda Holliday's frequency.

"Amanda, this is Xyrok, I'm requestion permission to dock."

There was nothing on the other end except for static, so I started to think my hack didn't work. I began to try the same line again when Amanda's voice suddenly came through with clear surprise and slight confusion.

"Xyrok? That's not possible, Vesair said he escaped the Vault after he betrayed that fireteam. Whoever this is, stop playing jokes and dock now so I can give you a piece of my mind."

I couldn't believe Amanda didn't even recognize my voice; I thought we had a really good relationship going. Pushing my thoughts aside, I slowly eased my ship into the docking bay. I saw Amanda as soon as I stepped out of my ship, who looked angry at first and then suddenly looked like her jaw could fall all the way down to the City.

"Hi," I said quickly and cheerfully as I raised my hand up slightly.

Amanda just stared at me with the same look for about a minute before finally saying something, "I knew lack of sleep would catch up with me eventually because now I'm seeing ghosts… And not the ones from the Traveler."

I reached toward Amanda's shoulder, but she quickly pulled away, "Amanda, it's really me. Whatever Vesair told everyone is a lie, I'm _not_ a traitor."

Amanda's shock turned to confusion, "Why would he do that? That's not right… I need to tell Cayde."

I responded quicker than a Warlock could blink… Like I knew what she was going to say before she could say it, "Amanda, don't tell Cayde. My business here is with Vesair, and I can't afford to risk being put away if the Vanguard actually believes his lies."

"Xy, I could get in trouble if they find out you're here and I didn't tell them."

"They won't find out, just… Keep my ship hidden and act like nothing has happened."

"Xy, what –"

I began to head towards the exit of the bay as I responded, "I'll tell you everything later, just do what you do."

I left the docking bay and found myself at the central area of the Tower; Guardians littered the area with some standing in groups, others bustling about like they had somewhere to be, and an unusually long line of angry and impatient Guardians originating from Master Rahool.

I needed to go to the less used area of the Tower, the one across from the Speakers domain, and the crowded Tower made it easy to move unnoticed. I reached the door that was open a mere crack; it was here that The Coalition had called home. I pried the door open just enough to squeeze through, and once I was inside I noticed that there was nobody there. I had been there once before and it was as busy as the Tower usually was, but when I entered at that point it seemed more like it was newly abandoned.

I quickly made my way to where I knew Vesair would be normally, ignoring the silence and the loneliness. When I finally reached my destination, he was there all by himself, without any of his thug Titans with him.

"Seems you've finally made it here… Do you know how long I've been waiting for you? You sure took your time," he spoke with an evil and slightly amused tone.

"I don't care how long you've been waiting, I'm here to kill you and bring back Silla."

Vesair looked at me with a smirk, "Oh, I don't think that'll happen."

"What do you mean? Of course it –"

There was a sudden jolt of electricity that pulsed through my body and I fell to the ground, seizing. From the corner of my eye I could see three purple figures and heard a familiar male voice but couldn't remember where it was from.

"Thank you for the tip, Warlock; the Queen will be very pleased."

A smirking female face with dark hair suddenly appeared before my eyes and spoke with another familiar voice, "The Queen will be more than pleased, she will be elated. Prepare the ship, we have to get him to her as soon as we can."

It was then that I realized that these two were a part of the Queen's Guard I met on the Moon. I began to look around towards the Titan when there was a sudden flash of white before the world went black, and it felt like I was in a deep sleep.

 _It seems my fears have become reality, we have been betrayed. It's so dark now, but only after the little light that was left was used to hopefully save him._

 _Is this what happens when my kind dies? Eternal darkness, but with no sadness… No emotion at all. Just dark… So dark I can barely hear my own thoughts. Is this what suffocation feels like?_

 _I suppose my time has been up for quite some time… One can only last so long when they are powered on lies._

When I came to, my head was pounding like a bell and my arm was somehow stuck behind my back. As my vision cleared up, I had seen a face which I had not planned to see for quite some time. It was none other than the Queen of the Awoken herself, Mara Sov, and I seemed to be kneeling in front of her throne.

Mara eventually spoke in her terrifyingly soothing voice, "It is time to pay for your crimes."

I cocked my head to one side as the pounding in my head reduced to inconsistent throbbing, "Crimes? Why, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Her brother, Uldren, suddenly snapped back with his convicting, not-so-soothing voice, "You know damn well what she's talking about." He backed down as soon as Mara motioned for him to calm down.

I pretended like I had suddenly remembered some distant memory, "Oh, you mean the ship? That was a good ship… Too bad it didn't last very long."

Mara responded with false surprise, "A confession? Well, I suppose we shall carry on with the sentence," she snapped her fingers once and two Fallen Vandals lifted me from my knees, "You will go into a cell to await your execution."

I began to attempt to struggle free from the Vandals, "Wh- Waitwaitwait, execution!? All I did was steal a ship!"

Uldren spoke up once more, "Yes, you only stole a ship, but you chose the wrong person to steal from."

I continued to struggle as the Vandals dragged me away from the smirking faces of Mara and Uldren. The Vandals dragged me into the depths and threw me in with the restraints still around my remaining arm. I don't know how long I was in that cell, but I know I slept at least a dozen times before I saw the outside of that cell again.

I awoke to the sound of banging very different from the sound that the other residents of the prison made. This banging came from outside and sounded more like a hand cannon, but with a bit more of a concussive sound. I couldn't figure out what the sound could have been coming from until the door to my cell slid open.

The figure in the door was none other than the Hunter Vanguard himself, Cayde-6. When he approached me, he looked at my missing arm with shock then look at my restrained arm with even greater shock.

"How the hell… Do you restrain a one-armed man? Technology is mind-blowing these days."

All I could manage was to give Cayde a look that told him I was tired of him and his stupid jokes. He met my gaze and sighed as he made his way around the back of me to break me free. As soon as the restraint came off, I turned around and grabbed Cayde by the throat, slamming him against the wall.

"Hey! Easy there, big guy. I came here to rescue you, you wouldn't try to kill me, right? Right?" Cayde chuckled nervously as he attempted to pry my hand away from his throat.

"How do I know you're not some sort of trick? Sent in here to make me believe I'm being set free just to be brought back in here!"

Cayde stopped struggling and looked back at me with disbelief, "I would never betray one of my own Guardians… Besides, you were always my favorite Hunter, and you still are."

I didn't want to believe him, but I knew he was right. Cayde may be deceiving sometimes, but I knew he would never betray a comrade. I decided to let him go and he dropped to the floor less than gracefully. I turned and began to pull out the Bones of Wrath when I realized it wasn't there; I still don't know why I thought they wouldn't have taken it away from me. Suddenly, Cayde stepped beside me and handed it to me, holding it by the barrel.

"I pulled this off a Queen's Guard Titan… It looked pretty unique and I know that Titans don't have the patience to use hand cannons, so I took it." Cayde paused and continued holding it as I grabbed the grip, "Also, I saw you carrying it while you were walking through the Tower a few days ago."

He released the weapon and I stared at him blankly with my mouth hung open. He chuckled and shrugged as he pulled out his own weapon and began to leave the cell. I watched him leave for a few more seconds before I regained my thoughts and followed him.

I suddenly thought back to what he said about the Titan, "Wait, so what happened to the Queen's Guard? Did you kill them? They sucked, but they didn't deserve to-"

Cayde suddenly cut me off with a raised hand, "Relax, you know I wouldn't do that." As we turned the corner, he motioned to three figures on the floor against the wall, "All I did was tell them a little bedtime story." He never told me what he did, and I never found out.

The rest of the way out was uneventful; the path was littered with subdued Fallen and Guardians bearing the Queen's colors. We left in a dropship that was floating near an unused airlock and was piloted by Amanda, and I couldn't help thinking that I should have known it was her who planned this rescue. Once we were inside the ship, Amanda slowly navigated it through the wreckage until we reached open space.

We jumped into lightspeed for only a short time before we stopped and slowly began floating through space. I began to ask what was going on before Cayde stopped me. It was silent for a while and my mind began to run wild, thinking he would throw me out of the ship or shoot me there and end my life. Finally, Cayde spoke up and I wish he never had never told me what he did.

Cayde told me of my past, that I was completely different before my mind was wiped. He said the last time it was wiped was because I lost my Fireteam that I did everything with. He told me that I didn't lose them all at once, though. The Warlock went first, he was lost in the Vault of Glass like those three Guardians that began my downfall. Cayde told me that this Warlock sacrificed himself so that the Titan and I could escape.

He went on to tell me that the Titan and I eventually grew apart because of our sorrow. I spent all my time in the Tower hanging out in the small club in the hangar, while the Titan was constantly out killing things to relieve the pain. One day, the Titan had met his match, but his Ghost had somehow returned to deliver the news. Cayde said that this news devastated me more than ever, mostly because I thought it was my fault for not being there for him.

Eventually, my sorrow got the best of me and I went to a man to have my memory reset. Cayde advised against it, he said that you can forget but your old memories would always find a way to haunt you; Now that I think back on it, they did haunt me from time to time, I just didn't know it. I went against Cayde's warnings and became a new person, free of sorrow, with only Silla at my side. He said he had told Silla not to tell me anything and even that she had changed somehow too.

At the end of all this, Cayde told me that this wasn't the first time and it wouldn't be the last. Once we were back to Earth, Amanda flew me to my ship that was parked outside the City and dropped me off there. Before they left, Cayde left me with one final piece of advice; once I killed Vesair, I should return to the Tower and begin my life anew once again. They were gone before I could say anything, and I was left with the weight of my previous life on my mind.

I lifelessly walked back to my ship, and once I entered I saw that Scav was inside with an exosuit of some sort, the one I'm wearing now. It's small enough to fit inside modified armor, but large enough to make me look like the size of a Titan in armor.

I stared for a few seconds before speaking up, "What's this? I didn't ask for anything else."

Scav shrugged, "You did not have to, I create things because I like to. This may be my greatest work to date, though; it enhances all of your abilities and gives you greater defensive capabilities."

I chuckled slightly, "Scav, I don't need this, I can defeat Vesair just fine like I am."

"You know as well as I do that he will not be the only one there… But you will not be going alone either."

"What do you mean I won't be alone? I don't have any allies besides some Fallen, and you would all be shot down as soon as you set foot on the Tower."

Scav replied with an annoyed tone, "Please, Eliksni… And I have seen something in my sleep; it could be just a mere dream that has no meaning. I have seen a Guardian who has been spreading tales about you throughout the City to children, spreading fear. This dream takes place many years beyond the one we are currently in, though. Try to remember this, and when you wake, you must look for this Guardian."

I looked at Scav with disbelief, "You expect me to believe in a dream? If this Guardian doesn't exist, everything will be pointless."

"Have some faith," he responded quietly. "Now, before you get into the suit, remove your armor and hand me your Ghost."

I backed away slightly and grabbed Silla's lifeless shell that was hanging from my chest, "What do you need her for?"

Scav simply held out one hand, "If you wish to defeat your enemies, you must make sacrifices. Anyway, you know that there is no way to bring it back."

It hurt to hear the truth, but I did know that she wasn't coming back… That fact is still difficult to accept. I took Silla's shell off the strap and reluctantly handed it to Scav. He gently took it and connected it to a power source on a desk nearby, which was also connected to the exosuit.

"What are you doing with that?" I asked as I began to remove my armor and weapon and placed them by the door to my ship.

"The material that makes up the Ghost shell can be helpful in making this power source work. The power source is needed to power up the suit."

As he finished making the necessary connections, he motioned for me to step in the exosuit. I nodded as I walked towards the exosuit and felt its rough, metal surface. I went around the back of it where it was open and I could see the wires inside glowing a very dim green color. I stepped inside the exosuit and felt it close around my back before Scav spoke again.

"You will feel a bit of a shock and you may be asleep for quite some time. I cannot say how long it will be, but I will most likely be long gone."

Before I could say anything, the wires made their connection with me, generating a shock that would cause severe spasms if not for the exosuit. This seemed to go on forever until the inside of my ship finally began to fade into darkness.

As I began to lose consciousness, I heard a voice, "Good luck, Xyrok. I'm going to miss you." Now that I think about it, I realize this was Silla's voice, but it sounded different with each syllable.

I tried to call out to the voice, but no noise came out, and I finally slipped into the darkness of my mind. Darkness is exactly what it was; I had no dreams or thoughts and it felt like I was floating through nothing. I thought I could hear voices every now and then but when I focused on them, there was only silence.

I floated like this for what seemed like an eternity, until I finally began to see a strip of light. The light began to grow and it felt like I was moving toward it, but _it_ was actually moving toward _me_. I squinted my eyes and began to move my arm over my eyes to block the light, but it was already upon me.

I felt a sudden breeze of cool air on my face, and when I opened my eyes I saw that the door to my ship was open and the light of the sunrise was flooding into my ship. I looked around and noticed that the inside of my ship was dusted with snow and Silla's shell looked colorless and rusted. I sighed and looked down at the exosuit that glowed a steady green with every movement I made.

I began to wonder how long I had been out when my question was answered for me; Scav had left some sort of timer that told me it had been five years. It sure didn't feel like I was asleep for five years… In fact, I din't feel any different from when I got into the suit. I removed the wires connecting the power source to the exosuit and walked over to my ship's exit. It was difficult to move at first as the suit calibrated to my movements, but eventually became normal.

Beside the door, my armor was neatly arranged and it seemed that Scav had made it to fit over the suit. I put the armor on and looked at my reflection in my helmet before putting it on; it seemed like I had a slight bit of rust from the elements and some wires stuck out from the top of my faded green head. I tucked the wires back into my head and put the helmet on. I looked at the Bones of Wrath that was also beside the exit and decided I didn't need it before I stepped outside to head into the City.

I entered the city through an entrance often used by civilian patrols that would fight the Fallen that the Guardians didn't take notice of. Once I was within the walls of the City, I pulled out the coin from Lil and a scrap of paper with an address scribbled on it. I arrived at an apartment building and climbed the stairs to reach the room on the paper, and when I knocked on the door I was greeted by an older man.

The man simply stared at me for a few seconds before his eyes widened and he blocked himself with his hands, "Please, don't hurt me, I'll give you anything you want! Just please leave me and my family alone!"

I was so startled that I slightly stumbled backwards, holding up my hand. "Woah, woah… I'm not here to hurt you!"

A voice came from inside the apartment, "Dad, who is it? What's going on?"

The man responded nervously, "I-it's that Fallen Guardian! I think he's here to rob us and kill us!"

"W-wait! Look!" I exclaimed as I held out the coin in front of me. "Lil told me to bring this here."

The man suddenly stopped and a younger man appeared next to him, also seeing the coin. The younger man slowly grabbed the coin and turned it between his fingers. He closed the coin in his fist and looked at me once more, "So I take it she's gone then?"

I nodded once and saw a slight smile slowly surface on his face, it seemed he was happy she could finally rest in peace. The man invited me in and we talked about Lil, who he seemed to adore the whole time she was gone, I could even hear it in his voice then. He introduced me to his son, who was amazed for a few seconds, but eventually rsn off to play.

I left soon after the child had and couldn't help but wonder what it was like to have a family. I exited the apartment building and leaned against the wall of the apartment building to think of all that had happened to me. I thought of everything from the mission that started it all, to Vesair's betrayal, to the moment I stepped out of the apartment building. I couldn't believe it had somehow been five years since this all began.

After about twenty minutes, I began to leave… Until I saw you, Amber. I don't know how I knew that you were the one Scav had told me about, but I just knew. I ducked into a nearby side alley and waited until you passed by to call out to you.

* * *

Amber simply stared as Xyrok finished the final words of his story. She had a hard time believing any of what he had told her, but there was no reason not to believe him.

After some silence, Xyrok spoke up, "So, uh… What do you think?"

Amber began staring at the dead Ghost shell sitting on the nearby desk, "What do I think? I don't even know what I'm supposed to think. It all just sounds so… Unbelievable."

"I don't blame you," Xyrok said softly. "I still can't believe all this happened myself… You know what I'm going to ask you next, though."

Amber smirked, still staring at the Ghost shell, "You're right about that, and I may be about to make another stupid decision, but…" Amber looked back towards Xyrok, "I'll help you kill Vesair."


	8. Chapter 8: Encounter

_AN: Hey guys! After some advice and reading over the chapter, I decided to make a few changes. It's nothing major and nothing is really that different story-wise, but I just added a bit more detail. For those of you who have already read this chapter and would like to know what I changed: I changed an exchange that happened in the ship, and I added some stuff at the "Encounter". I decided to make these changes because of some great feedback I received, and the chapter felt just a tad bit wrong to me. I hope you guys will forgive me, I'm still working on my writing skills but hopefully I'm improving. For anyone disappointed that this isn't a new chapter, I'm going to try to get the next one uploaded today. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!  
_

* * *

Although Xyrok expected Amber to say yes, he was still taken slightly aback by her blunt response. Instead of a mission for justice (and maybe a bit of revenge), it sounded more like a planned murder. He pushed the thought out of his mind once he saw Amber stand up and head to a different corner of the ship.

"Where are you going?" Xyrok asked with a confused tone.

"I'm going to need my good gear in order to kill someone, won't I?" Amber responded as she disappeared behind a curtain.

"What, now? Don't you need to prepare to commit murder or something? You seem straight as an arrow," Xyrok replied with clear surprise.

Amber reappeared from behind the curtain wearing only her helmet, "Let's just say there's a lot you don't know about me." She pressed a button on the side of her helmet, causing a tiny antenna to rise from it, "Hex, you there?"

Xyrok simply stared before he spoke again, "Never seen something like that before… Wait a minute, who are you talking to?"

Amber held a palm out to Xyrok until she heard a distorted, mechanical voice through her helmet, "What is it, Amber?"

Smirking beneath her helmet, she responded, "Finish up what you're doing and bring me my good gear, sending my coordinates now." Amber pressed the button on her helmet once more and it retracted after remaining still for a few seconds.

Xyrok had begun putting on his armor after Amber had held her palm out to him, and was now placing his helmet on his head, "Is this Hex someone I need to worry about? Another agent of the Queen, maybe?"

Amber replied with clear surprise, dropping her helmet on the ground as she was taking it off, "What? No, Hex is my-"

Suddenly, a Ghost that was as dark as the Void with what looked like little stones stuck to half of it appeared. When it spoke, its voice was distorted like it had just been hit by a Knight's sword and sounded lower than Commander Zavala's, "I'm her Ghost. The real question is, who are you?"

Amber was suddenly fully equipped as her armor and weapons seemed to appear from nowhere. The armor looked skin-tight and had the same Void-like color as Hex. It also had extra metal armoring down the entire right side of her body, which was a plain gray and looked to be made of stone. Her cloak, which was narrow and similar to the gray armoring in color and material, ran down the left of her back down to her left ankle. Her cyclops-like helmet had a white light in the middle but seemed non-existent beneath the darkness of her hood.

The whole process was amazing to Xyrok, who hadn't seen a Ghost in what seemed like forever. He knew that any doubt he had in his mind that Amber wouldn't be enough to help him was now completely gone. Although he didn't know it, Amber was currently a step beneath Cayde in strength, but without her fireteam she was no more than an average Guardian. Xyrok didn't need to know this, for he could feel the strength coming from her; he could feel the light he was no longer linked with.

"I can't believe you would think that I'd betray you," Amber scoffed as she checked her weapons, loaded them, then holstered them. Her weapons were a submachine gun that hung on her left hip and a short shotgun that hung down her back. The submachine gun resembled the Void-like part of her armor, while the shotgun resembled the gray armoring.

"Well, I have a good reason to believe something like that." He said as he walked over to the ship's exit to prepare his own weapon.

Hex then made a sound that was almost like someone clearing their throat, then sounded slightly annoyed, "I asked who you were, Guardian."

Xyrok looked at Hex then responded, "I'm Xyrok. Before you ask, we're going to kill a corrupt Guardian. We go now, buckle up." Xyrok began to head to the cockpit of his ship until Hex appeared before him.

"You mean _you_ are going to kill a corrupt Guardian. Let's get out of here, Amber." Hex looked toward Amber and she simply shook her head. "Amber, I don't think you realize how dangerous this could be."

Amber crossed her arms and spoke in a matter-of-fact voice, "Have you forgotten which one of us is the Guardian, Hex?"

"But-" Xyrok pushed Hex out of the way and continued to the cockpit to prepare for takeoff. Hex then floated toward Amber and disappeared, "Fine then, have it your way."

The trio then began to fly towards the tower, but not to the hangar. Xyrok had another plan in mind that would be quicker, but maybe more dangerous. "We're gonna fly over where the Coalition lives and then you, Hex, will transmat us in."

"That's insane-" Hex began before he was interrupted by Amber.

"It sounds great, but what about your ship?"

Xyrok tightened his grip on the flight controls, "Well, she's been faithful, but I guess I won't need her if I'm gonna forget she's mine anyway."

"I guess you won't," Amber responded quietly as she looked at Silla's dead shell on the desk.

The two Guardians made final preparations as Xyrok's ship began to make its final approach on the Tower. Suddenly, Amanda Holliday's voice came through Xyrok's comms device sounding distorted, "I suppose it's time now, then?"

"It is, but we're not landing," Xyrok replied with a somber tone.

"I know, big guy. Listen, be careful over there, I want to say goodbye in person before you go changing on us. So, the next time I see you, you better be alive, or I'll-"

"You'll kill me?" Xyrok chuckled, and Amanda joined in. "Don't worry, Amanda, I don't die easily.

Amanda smirked, "I know you don't… Good luck Xyrok." Amanda then watched as Xyrok's ship began to disappear out of her view.

As their conversation ended, Xyrok and Amber were nearly upon the Tower. Xyrok flipped on the auto pilot switch and walked over to where Amber was. "Alright, I don't know how good the auto pilot on this old thing is anymore, but we have to be ready. Can you get us in there, Hex?"

"I can do it easily, so let's get this over with," Hex replied, still annoyed.

"Alright then, let's-" Xyrok was interrupted by an unknown impact to the ship, which caused it to spin out of control. "Now Hex, now!"

The two Guardians were out instantly and reappeared again on the ground of where the Coalition called home. Xyrok was the first to look up to see that they were surrounded by Guardians and began to pull out his Bones of Wrath. Amber suddenly grabbed his wrist and pushed his weapon down.

"We can't kill them, they're just as much victims as your are," she whispered as she slowly looked around and held a hand out in surrender.

"Well, I doubt they'll just let us waltz through, so we gotta do something."

"It's fine, just let me try to talk to them." Amber stood up and began to speak, "Fellow Guardians, let us pass and you will soon be free of your tyrannical leader." There was only silence and Amber looked back towards Xyrok as if to say 'I told you so'. Xyrok watched as a Titan began to throw a fist at Amber as she was turning around.

Amber saw the Titan out of the corner of her eye and ducked immediately as she continued to turn and push her left foot towards the Titan in a swift kick. The kick didn't seem to have any affect on this tank of a Titan, and Amber proceeded to bring her right fist up in a punch. Xyrok watched as the stone-like armor Amber was wearing seemed to be moving, as if it were alive.

The Titan was sent onto the ground after the punch connected and Amber sighed with relief as she stood up. Amber then looked around at the group of Guardians and spoke loudly, "Now, if none of you want to end up like your friend here, let us through to your boss."

"That won't be necessary, Hunter." This diabolical sounding voice came from beyond the crowd of Guardians, it was a voice that Xyrok knew all too well. "All of you leave, now."

As the crowd departed through the entrance behind them, Amber saw an Awoken with dark hair and tattered robes that matched. His skin was a pale gray and his eyes were as orange as the sunset. Just looking into this Awoken's eyes made Amber feel uncomfortable, as it felt like they looked deep into her soul.

"So, you've finally decided to face me. It's been too long, Vesair," Xyrok said as he stood up while pointing his gun at Vesair.

"I figured you'd be rotting in the Prison of Elders by now… I guess I was wrong." Vesair looked at Amber, "I suppose he drew you in with his lies, Guardian? You're on the wrong side, so I'll have to kill you too," he said, feigning regret.

Amber started to speak, but Xyrok was already running at Vesair with his gun pointed at him. Vesair didn't move an inch as Xyrok got within feet from him. Once her was close enough, Vesair smacked the gun out of Xyrok's hand and knocked him to the ground. Xyrok's head was ringing as he watched Vesair walk over to the weapon and pick it up.

Vesair inspected the weapon as he spoke, "To think you'd actually try to use my own weapon against me. That's pretty low, Guardian." Vesair pointed the gun at Xyrok as he attempted to regain his bearings, "It won't be killing me this time, but it will kill you a second time."

"You won't kill me today, you bastard!" Xyrok pulled his knife out and charged at Vesair once more. As Vesair tried to take aim to shoot him, Xyrok teleported behind him and his arm glowed purple as he charged up his arm for a fatal stab to the neck. The knife made contact with Vesair's neck and Xyrok backed away, breathing heavily.

Vesair stood for a few seconds before he pulled the knife out of his neck and inspected it. Xyrok looked on in shock as he saw the wound in his neck heal in mere seconds. Vesair tossed the knife aside and began to laugh as he pointed the gun at Amber.

"Now do you believe me, Guardian? You're on the wrong side." He repeated this sentence slowly as he pulled the trigger on the Bones of Wrath.

"Amber, move!" Xyrok yelled, but noticed that she seemed to be frozen in a trance. Xyrok growled and shook his head as he quickly managed to teleport between the bullet and Amber. "What are you doing? You have to mo-," Xyrok stopped as the bullet made contact with him.

Amber watched as a hole suddenly appeared in the right side of his helmet and the bullet that penetrated him grazed the side of her helmet. She continued to watch him fall to the ground as if it was in slow motion and began to wonder what had happened. She was so confident that the two of them could do it, that she didn't think of the consequences.

Amber looked at Vesair as he began to walk towards her instead of firing another shot. All she could do was stand there as Vesair grabbed hold of her throat and began squeezing. Her eyelids slowly began to close as the world around her was swallowed up by darkness.

Amber heard a muffled voice before as lost total consciousness, and as she began to see a blinding bright light, she could hear that it was Hex, "Get up, Amber! Finish this!"

Amber opened her eyes and noticed she was on the ground, and Vesair was walking away from her body. _It seems he's forgotten how Ghosts work_ , Amber thought as she massaged her throat. She stood up and planted her right foot onto the ground, pushing off as the stone-like armor wavered around her leg. She was immediately on Vesair, knocking him to the ground and causing him to drop his weapon to the left of Amber.

With her right hind clenched around his throat like a vice grip, she reached from the weapon and planted the barrel directly on Vesair's right temple. "Your scheming ends here, I hope it was all worth it." Amber pulled back the hammer as Vesair attempted to remove her hand from his throat.

"Wait!" Vesair yelled as Amber pulled the trigger, and his arms fell to the ground. She held the weapon there for a moment longer before it turned into embers and blew away with the breeze. Amber stood up and watched as Vesair's body also began to dissolve, the pure light that drained from him looking like vapor.

Amber turned around and walked over to Xyrok's body, kneeling next to him. She removed the helmet from his head to see the real damage that had been done. The hole in his head was large enough to fit three fingers in and she could see wires sparking on the inside of his head. Amber slowly ran her fingers over the hole as tears began to fall from her eyes, "He's finally dead, Xyrok. We really did it."

Amber then removed her own helmet to wipe the tears from her eyes, and looked directly into the one dead eye that was left, "I'll be sure to tell everyone the truth of your story, and you'll go down as a legend."


	9. Chapter 9: Discovery

_AN: Hey! I put this in the previous chapter, but the site doesn't seem to reflect that I updated the story: I made a few changes to the last chapter with dialogue in the ship, and some details added at the end. If you want to know why, it's in the AN in there, so check it out if you feel like it! There's no major changes, just things I feel I needed to change, but I promise it's worth the couple minutes to read! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this new chapter, and let me know what you think!_

* * *

Hector watched as an ancient-looking ship spun out of control away from the Tower and towards the ground. He had seen many things during his patrols around the base of the Tower, but this was a first. He continued to watch as the ship crashed on the other side of a ridge a few hundred meters away from his current position.

"Rook, my sparrow," Hector said, his voice sounding gravelly. A sparrow appeared beside him, and he climbed on while keeping eye contact with the place where the ship touched down. "And find out if Zavala knows anything about that ship."

Hector accelerated toward the crashed ship's location, wondering what could be happening up at the Tower. _Nothing was broadcasted, so it couldn't have been an attack… Could someone have forgotten how to fly?_ As he rode over the final slope, he dismounted from his sparrow and pulled out his shotgun, walking towards the ship in a shallow crouch while aiming his weapon at it in case anything emerged from it. There was nothing after a few moments, so he placed his shotgun on his back and stood up straight to inspect the ship. Hector saw that the ship was very old, a lot less compact than the ones they make now, but it was also more resilient. The crash didn't seem to have much of an effect on the ship's exterior and the only noticeable damage was from what he assumed to be what brought it down in the first place; he had seen this type of damage before and knew that this was Vesair's doing.

Hector began to approach the ship to open the door on the side of it, but the door seemed to open by itself. He quickly jumped back and aimed his shotgun once more as the door slowly began to open. Once it was open, he saw that there was clearly nobody inside, and thought the door must have used some sort of sensor to open itself. Once more, Hector put his weapon away and began to walk into the ship to see what was inside.

Looking around the interior, Hector could see scrap and rusty weapons scattered around, likely the results of the crash. The owner of this ship seemed like they were a hoarder, but none of it was random junk; some of the parts seemed to have been cut apart or partly used for something, and the weapons were partially disassembled and left to rust. Hector continued to look around until he saw a desk, the only thing that seemed to be bolted to the floor of the ship. He moved towards the desk and saw some type of power source connected to a wire that ran behind the desk. Grabbing the wire, he began to pull it until it finally revealed a dead Ghost on the other end of it. Hector took hold of the Ghost and inspected it as he pulled the wire out from the back of it.

The Ghost was rusted beyond any recognition, and one of the four spikes sticking out of the back of it was broken in half. This was an old Ghost for sure, but he knew it could be saved; he felt a faint light emitting from the dead shell, and it was asking for help. Hector thought that maybe he could find the owner of this Ghost if he brought it back to the Tower, and maybe even find out what happened to them.

Hector exited the ship and called for his Ghost, "Rook, bring the ship around, we need to get to the Tower, now." As he watched his ship fly overheard, Hector was suddenly in the cockpit, and he placed the dead Ghost on his ship's dash.

"What's that?" Rook's voice rung out in his abnormally cheerful tone.

"It's a dead Ghost I found in that ship… Did you get anything from Zavala?"

"He said he didn't hear anything about a crashed ship, but he wants you to report the incident directly to him."

Hector smirked as he accelerated his ship, "I had a feeling he'd say that."

Hector docked his ship and made his way towards the Hall of Guardians, where Cayde seemed to be trying to convince Zavala of something. As Hector entered the room, Zavala looked at him and motioned for him to join them.

"Guardian-" Zavala began before being interrupted by Cayde.

"Hector! If it isn't my favorite Titan! Now, I need you to come with me," Cayde did all this while casually leading him away from Zavala. Hector looked back to Zavala, who simply stood with his arms crossed, unsurprised by this turn of events.

Cayde led Hector around the corner just outside of the room and spoke in a more serious tone, "Now, tell me about this ship. What did it look like?"

"It… looked old, but-"

"Perfect, perfect. So tell me, did you _find_ anything in the ship?"

Hector held the Ghost out in front of him, "Well, I found this dead Ghost."

Cayde stood with his mouth open for a moment before speaking with high praise, "It's like the Traveler itself sent you. I need you to come with me." Cayde began to walk toward the plaza, but Hector didn't follow. Cayde looked back and motioned for Hector to follow him, as if he was a distracted child, "Come on." Hector let out a long sigh as he began to follow Cayde, who led him into the club in the docking bay.

"Why are we down here?" Hector asked sternly.

"You're down here because you're going to help _us_ ," Cayde motioned to himself and a female Hunter sitting on one of the couches, "Save him," he continued as he motioned to an Exo lying on the table in front of the Hunter.

"What-," Hector was suddenly interrupted.

"That doesn't matter right now, what matters is that, Amber, you take this," he said as he took the Ghost from Hector and tossed it to Amber, "and see if the Speaker can do anything with it."

Amber caught the Ghost and stood up, motioning her free hand toward Hector, "Why can't he-"

"Hector," Cayde said loud enough to talk over Amber, "you stay here with me and wait for news from Amber."

"Alright," Hector replied slowly.

"Fine," Amber said with a sigh as she walked off, clearly frustrated.

"I believe in you!" Cayde cupped his hands around his mouth like a megaphone and exclaimed as she walked away. Once Cayde was sure Amber was out of earshot, he began speaking with Hector again, "I need you to do something for me." Hector merely stared, and Cayde nodded in confirmation, "First of all, do you know this Guardian?"

Hector inspected what part of the Guardian's face that was still noticeable, "This kind of looks like that Guardian you tried to pair me up with a few years back. I don't remember his name, though."

"That's fine, you don't have to, at least you recognize him. All I need you to do right now though, is listen."

Cayde told Hector everything he remembered about Xyrok, from the day they first met up until the events of the present day. Hector didn't want to believe what Cayde was saying, it all sounded so unreal, but he then remembered hearing the mumblings from other Guardians about Xyrok. Hector accepted the story as real, but one part of it didn't make sense to him.

"So, assuming Vesair had his own Ghost, why is he dead for good now?"

"Well, it seems he had used his own Ghost as the first sacrifice to whatever sick plan he had in mind. We asked the members of The Coalition, and that's what most of the older members told us. We also searched his room and found a dead Ghost that was identified as his."

"That's insane… What was he using them for?"

Cayde crossed his arms and looked towards Xyrok's body, "We have no idea. We didn't find any evidence of the machine he allegedly used, but Ikora is still doing her best to find anything." Cayde tilted his head and narrowed his eyes, "Amber did say he was vaporized into light as he died, so that's weird, but we still don't know what that's about." Cayde looked back toward Hector and placed his hands on his shoulders, "Anyway, this is why we need your help; if there's something more to this, we need to find out."

Hector nodded, "So what do you need me to do?"

Cayde simply stared at Hector for a few moments, not expecting him to accept all of this so quickly, "Well, alright then. What I need you to do is take his body, aaaand put it… In that ship you found."

Hector stared directly at Cayde, "No."

"Ah-ah, no takesies-backsies. I'm also going to need you to shoot a hole through the ship's windshield so it looks like he got shot through there or something. Good luck!" Cayde slapped both hands on Hector's shoulders and Hector watched in silence as he walked off with his hand raised in the air in a wave.

Rook appeared beside Hector and they both looked at each other, then at the dead Hunter on the table. Hector sighed, "Well, let's get to work then. Rook, you wanna grab him?"

"Not really… But I will," Rook answered, sounding joyful as ever.

Xyrok's body dematerialized as Hector and Rook made their way towards the crashed ship beside the Tower.

* * *

"Guardian, I cannot bring this Ghost back," the Speaker answered while continuing to inspect the dead Ghost.

"What do you mean? I thought it was possible to revive Ghosts," Amber replied frantically.

"Well, yes, but that is not what I mean. This Ghost has been through a lot; in fact, this is not the first time I have had a kind soul bring her to me."

"So why would that prevent you from bringing her back? If anything, that should make her an asset, right?"

"It would be too cruel, Guardian. This Ghost has been around much, much longer than you have been a Guardian. While it may be made from the Traveler's light, it is still part machine and I'm afraid it may go aberrant if brought back too many times."

"I don't think you understand, we need her to bring back Xyrok. Something might be happening and he's the only one who can help us, so, please… We need this." Amber was nearly in tears, not only for Xyrok or Silla but for the first time since she became a Guardian, this was something she _needed_.

The Speaker looked down to the Ghost in his hands, then back at Amber, analyzing her expression. "You seem very passionate about this, Guardian… Okay, I will bring this Ghost back for you. I will send her to the Vanguard when I am finished."

Amber attempted to hold back her smile, but she just couldn't. "Thank you so much, I'll be sure you won't regret this decision." The Speaker simply nodded and Amber began to make her way back to the docking bay. As she was halfway through the plaza, an arm wrapped around her and directed her towards the Hall of Guardians. She looked over to see that it was Cayde and gave him a confused look. "What's going on?"

"Oh nothing, we just moved our base of operations into the Hall, that's all," he responded as he continued to look forward.

"But I thought we were trying to keep Zavala and Ikora out of this," Amber said as she brushed Cayde's hand off her shoulder.

"Well, it seems the big lug is smarter than I gave him credit for, so he demanded our presence."

As they entered the Hall of Guardians, Amber saw Zavala waiting at the far end of the operations table and Ikora on the right side of it. Cayde greeted them with an enthusiastic wave, but Zavala remained still with his arms behind his back and Ikora crossed her arms as if she was severely disappointed.

After almost a full minute of silence, Zavala spoke up, "Where is my Titan, Cayde?"

"Oh, Hector? I sent him to do some shopping… Yeah, we're out of ramen and I had a real hankering for it."

There was another long silence and Zavala spoke again, his voice more booming this time, "Tell me where he is, Cayde."

Amber could see why Zavala was Commander of the Vanguard, and she was terrified of this presence, but Cayde didn't seem to be bothered even a little bit. He even retained his sarcastic tone as he answered, "I told you…"

* * *

 _Where am I? What's happening?_ "O… A… Up…" the voice echoed and sounded distant, saying incomplete words. _Where is everybody? Am I dead?_ "Os… Ake... Up…" the voice sounded… kind, like a father almost. _Hello? Who's there? I can't understand you!_ "Ghost, wake up." The voice was suddenly very close and clear sounding as if someone were speaking directly into your ear.

Suddenly, there was light, and Silla was staring up at the Speaker, who was looking back down at her. "Ghost, are you awake?" Silla simply blinked and floated off the desk she was sitting on. "Fantastic, you did make it. A little rusty, but I can fix that up." The Speaker summoned a Ghost and it scanned Silla. "There, what do you think?" The Speaker held a mirror in front of her and she saw that she was painted a dark red with two diagonal violet lines that formed an 'X' over her eye. The spikes that protruded from the back of her were also the same violet color as the lines and looked more like blades.

"I… like it- What… What happened to me?" Silla sounded confused and slightly terrified, "Where's Xyrok?"

The Speaker began to walk down the stairs from his study and Silla followed, "You were betrayed by a fellow Guardian, your light drained. Apparently, you had enough light to revive your Guardian after he had been killed. Your Guardian sought out vengeance and was killed once more, but another fearless Guardian ended the traitor's life, and then she brought you here."

"Xyrok is-," Silla began as she followed the Speaker to the balcony of the observatory.

"You need to go to the Vanguard, Ghost. I believe Cayde-6 can answer any questions you have." Silla nodded slowly and made her way to the Hall of Guardians, where Cayde and another Hunter were standing in the entrance.

She heard Zavala's voice boom through the Hall as she made her way past Shaxx and the Crucible Quartermaster, "Tell me where he is, Cayde." The Hunter seemed to wince slightly, but Cayde remained unmoved like he had been through a situation like this before.

Cayde began to speak as Silla entered the room, "I told you-"

"Cayde!" Silla called out as Cayde was speaking, "Where is he? Where is Xyrok?"

Cayde sighed as he slapped a hand over his face and mumbled to himself, "You couldn't have any better timing, could you, old man?"

This time it was Ikora who spoke, "Cayde, why is this Ghost asking about a traitor?"

Amber was furious, and began to yell, "Xyrok is not a traitor! He's-" Cayde raised a hand slightly to signal for Amber to stop. _This must be the Guardian that the Speaker was talking about… Did she really help Xyrok?_ Silla thought.

Ikora was taken aback, and Cayde lowered his hand as he spoke to her, "He's not a traitor, and you know it. Anyway, I guess it's time I spilled the ramen…"

Zavala shot Cayde a confused look, "Why would you spill your ramen?"

"I- I forgot you don't have a sense of humor," Cayde said with a sigh. "That doesn't matter though… Look, I sent Hector to bring Xyrok's body and place it into that crashed ship he found. It was Xyrok's ship, and I had him put there to make the situation seem real."

"Cayde, what are you talking about? What situation?" Ikora asked this with a look of disbelief.

Amber also looked at Cayde, confused, "Yeah, what do you mean?"

Cayde began to walk towards the left side of the table with his right fist in his left hand, "Look, we need to bring him back as if he's been dead for years. He's not going to believe that if we bring him back up here."

"Cayde, you know that my patrols would have ended up reporting a ship sitting directly outside the Tower as soon as they saw it. There's no logic in this," Zavala replied.

Once Cayde reached the table, he put both hands down on its surface, "He won't know about that until it's time for him to know. If we want to find out what's going on, he's gonna have to remember everything – and I mean everything. That's where his Ghost comes in."

"How would bringing back his memories from years ago help us with something that happened just today?" Zavala asked.

Cayde crossed his arms and looked to Silla, "Silla, do you know how many times you and Xyrok have been brought back?"

Silla looked at the ground, "Before this whole mess, maybe… Ten times over two years, not including when I first found him and his individual resets."

Cayde nodded to Silla and looked back to Zavala, "That can't be a coincidence, and just to add a cherry on top, there have always been two Guardians to help bring them back. There's something bigger going on here, and he's gonna need to remember everything to find out."

"Well if we need his memories, couldn't we just use his Ghost?" Ikora inquired.

As Cayde was about to answer, Silla interrupted him, "No, the same thing happened every time; I was killed first, and therefore don't know what happened afterward."

Cayde looked at Silla and nodded, "Exactly, and as much as I love this little chat of ours, you need to go bring him back now. I'll have my Ghost send you the coordinates, but you have to make haste or else you'll be too late to bring him back."

Silla looked down and away from Cayde, thinking that maybe this was all be trick, or maybe she was just dreaming in the wakeless state of death. Deep down, she knew none of that was possible, she knew that these were her allies and that she felt alive. Silla looked towards Cayde and nodded, "Okay, I'll bring him back."

She began to leave the Hall when Cayde spoke once more, "Don't forget, he's not supposed to know who you are. Treat this like the first time you found him."

Silla stopped for a moment, "I know… I'll never forget when I first found him." She continued to make her way towards the coordinates where Xyrok was waiting for her, as her memories began to flood back into her mind.


End file.
